Price of Fame
by bunengshuo
Summary: AU. All the promotions, appearance, performances, and practices were finally put on hold for the next 24 hours. Sasuke Uchiha was going to use those 24 hours to the full. Long one-shot


Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke quickly looked both ways before crossing the street. All the promotions, appearance, performances, and practices were finally put on hold for the next 24 hours. He was going to use those 24 hours to the full.

It wasn't like he didn't enjoy the fame, money, and nice things. He liked the fact his album had sold well. After all he had put great amounts of effort into writing and producing each song. He liked to hear his concerts were sold out in the first couple hours. It meant that he could show off his hours of practice in the dance room. He liked having the money to buy nice things or when nice things were offered to him. He liked photo shoots the best because he often got to keep the clothes that he was promoting. Once he was even offered a car, a really really nice car. He wasn't going to complain about the special treatment he received whenever he went to a restaurant, a store, or any place really. He liked the fans too. On some levels they kept him motivated and pressured him to keep getting better. It was nice to know that people like you, that lots of people like you.

He could get through the grueling rehearsals. Sure his body screamed at him to stop and rest but he ignored it. He often woke up on the floor, discovering that he didn't even have enough energy to get on the bed. He could get through the busy hectic schedule. He once found out that he could survive on just 2 hours of sleep. He was used to it now. He could get through the fan meetings, signing paper after paper and shaking hand after hand.

What he couldn't get used to was the lack of privacy. Because with the loss of privacy, he almost lost her too.

"Welcome! How can I…" Hinata turned to look at the man who had just walked into her café.

"Hi."

"Um, hi."

"How are you?" Sasuke walked up to the counter.

"Doing okay. How are you?"

"Today is my day off."

"That's good." He needed a rest. She had always told he that he worked too hard.

"Yeah. It's nice. Is today your day off too?"

"Sakura. Mind if you cover for me? I have to run a couple of errands."

"Where are you going?" A pink-haired girl stepped out from the kitchen. She recognized him right away.

"Please?" She looked at Hinata's pleading eyes.

"Sure. I can close tonight too. I'll see you in the morning."

"Thank you." Hinata hugged her best friend.

"Thanks. Naruto says hi." Sakura blushed at her boyfriend's name.

"Um, yeah. Tell him that I say hi too." Hinata went into the back and grabbed her

purse. Sasuke and Hinata walked out of the café.

"So, where do you want to go?"

"Hn."

"It's cold. Let's go home." Sasuke smirked when he heard that word. Home. The word was foreign to him. He wasn't home very often. In fact, he was hardly home at all. When they had entered their apartment, Sasuke immediately felt a hint of jealousy. It was weird for him to be jealous of the kitchen or the couch. But he was. These inanimate things spent time with her every day while he did not. She had probably touched them this morning. He had not. He could not. The minute that she closed the doors and curtains, he took off his hat. He followed her into the kitchen.

"Want something to eat?" Sasuke came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He inhaled deeply, taking in her scent. Lavender. That's probably why he requested that fresh lavender were put in the hotel rooms he stayed in. It reminded him of her.

"I missed you." Hinata put her arms on tops of his.

"Me too." The two stayed liked that for a few moments. It wasn't like he didn't try to contact her. He would call her whenever he could. Sometimes she would stay up all night waiting for his call, especially if he was in a different country. He would surprise her with various gifts. She would often receive packages from various parts of the world. The delivery guy and her had become friends. He never forgot their anniversary, the day that he proposed, the day of their first date, or any other important day for that matter. He would always send her something, reassuring her that he was still thinking about her. But it was different when he was actually physically here, holding her.

Their moment was interrupted when Hinata's phone rang.

"Is that my song?"

"Maybe." Hinata blushed and went to answer her phone. Sasuke walked into the living room. He saw a photo of Neji and TenTen's wedding. They would have been married for a year now. Being the head of one of the biggest companies in Japan enabled Neji to "hire" Sasuke to sing at their wedding. Of course he did it for free but the public didn't need to know that. He saw a picture of Hanabi, Hiashi, and Hinata. They looked somewhat happy, well as happy as they could be. At times it still puzzled him how Hinata could mourn for the death of a man who had treated her terribly. There was a picture of her and Gaara. That one, he never liked. Gaara had been there on the first day her café had opened; he had been busy. Sasuke didn't look at that picture for long. He moved on to one of Sakura, Hinata, and Temari. They were the bridemaids for Shikamaru and Ino's wedding. Out of the three, Sasuke admitted that Hinata looked the best with her hair up in a bun and loose bangs that framed her face perfectly.

"Sorry about that. Hanabi wanted to meet up for lunch tomorrow."

"Where's our pictures?" He felt hurt that she didn't have any of them.

"Well I can't exactly have them out in the open. It's difficult to explain things when we have guests over."

"So?"

"Don't be such a baby. Come here." Hinata lead Sasuke to room adjacent to their bedroom.

"This is what I call my stalker room." Hinata joked. Sasuke walked into the room and he understood why. One of the walls had pictures lined up of him and her. Another wall had all the posters for his movies, concerts, and albums. The wall next to that one had an entire book shelf of DVDs. Sasuke looked at her questionably.

"I recorded all of the talks shows and performances that you had." Sasuke took out a DVD. It was dated 5 years ago, when he had first debuted. The last DVD was of the performance he did yesterday.

"You are a stalker."

"Thanks! I like to say that you will have a good memory of all the things that you did." Sasuke smirked her comment. The last wall was full of binders. He took one out labeled "evil." They were newspaper clippings of any of the gossips that he had encountered. The most recent one linked him with some model that he did a photo shoot with. Their managers had set up a dinner for them and it was blown out of proportion. Sasuke chose not to comment about Hinata's "die!!" note on the side. The next binder was their wedding album.

"That one is my favorite." Sasuke took it of the room and sat down on the couch. He motioned for her to sit next to him. Hinata leaned her head against Sasuke's shoulder as he flipped through their wedding album.

They had met in their senior year of high school through mutual friends, Naruto and Sakura. He liked her right away because she wasn't one of the weird obsessed fan girls. She was quiet, shy, and kept her distance. It took some time for her to like him. At first she had thought he was joking when he asked her out but after a while she found out that he was serious. They had gotten into the same university; he studied music and she studied business. She confessed to him that she didn't want to take over her father's company but wanted to open a small café instead. He told her that he wanted to make it in the music industry. In his last year of college, she had secretly sent some of his demos to a record company. They signed him right away. She dropped him off at rehearsals and then went to school. After work she would wait for him in the car until late at night when he finished his practices. After a year of training, the company decided that Sasuke was ready to make his debut. He was a success right away. After that, however, he started to see her less and less.

She broke up with him a year late, claiming that she didn't feel the same way anymore. They had grown apart she had said. Sasuke pleaded with her that he would make it up to her but she wouldn't hear any of it. That was when he threw himself into work, always practicing, always writing more songs. But his songs always lacked something. The critics wrote that while his songs did well on the charts it lacked "soul." They were right. She wasn't there so part of his soul was gone. He always kept tabs on her. How she was doing in school. How her business was doing. After a year of separation, he found out from Naruto, his manager, that Hinata only broke up with him because she felt she was a burden to him. She had the crazy notion that she was slowly him down; which was the opposite because she was the only thing that kept him going. That was the only time he ever missed an event. He got on a plane and flew back to see her. He found her in her café. That night he proposed to her.

They had a relatively simple wedding, only a few guests were invited. They had both wanted it that way. He sang a song that he had wrote for her. Right after the dinner he had to go back to work to promote his new album. Hinata never complained.

That was their relationship for the past 3 years. His work kept him from being with her. He always gave her VIP tickets to his concerts but she only attended a few of them so as not to bring up suspicion. In truth he was tired of all the secrecy. He wished that he could just tell everyone that he was taken and disappear from the industry all together. Sasuke was terrified that she would one day wake up and find that she was tired of it all. But she assured him that she would never leave him. She pushed him to keep on doing what he loved, promising that she would always be waiting for him.

"I like this one." Hinata pointed to a picture of him kissing her on the cheek.

"Hn." Sasuke took her hand and looked at her wedding ring. He had actually taken her to pick out a ring after he proposed to her. Hinata looked for the necklace that Sasuke always wore. It wasn't like he could actually wear his wedding band out for the public to see.

"Never go anywhere without it." Sasuke pulled out the necklace and put the ring on her hand. Hinata smiled. He was still the same Sasuke.

"I love you Sasuke." Hinata whispered. Sasuke wrapped his arms around and pulled her closer to him.

"I love you too." Slowly their lips finally met. At that moment, they were in their own world. What started out as a gentle kiss soon turned into a passionate one. They hadn't seen each other in 2 months; both longed for each other's touch. Sasuke carried Hinata into the bedroom and shut the door.

* * *

Sasuke woke up because of his phone. He turned to look at the naked woman next to him. He could get used to waking up next to her every morning.

"What?"

"BAKA!" Sasuke did not appreciate hearing Naruto's loud voice in the morning.

"Do you have to be so loud?"

"You got caught. There are pictures of you going into Hinata's house!"

"You mean me going into my house."

"They won't see it that way!"

"Fine. I'll take care of it. Just call one of those press things in a couple of hours." Sasuke closed the phone.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah." Sasuke leaned in to give Hinata a kiss.

"Hm. Want some breakfast?"

"Just a few more minutes." Sasuke pulled Hinata back into bed.

"But I might fall back asleep."

"It's okay." Sasuke looked at the time. His 24 hours of freedom were almost up. He would have to go back to work. They would be separated again.

"I was thinking. What happens if we just told everyone? Not keep it a secret?"

"But that's not good for you. Remember that Naruto said it would hurt your image."

"Doesn't matter. I am tired of it. If people really like me then shouldn't they support me no matter what?"

"I guess. But maybe we should wait a little longer."

"Are you sick of it yet? Having to hide all the time?"

"It's fine really." Sasuke looked at his wife; she was hesitating.

"It doesn't bother you? We can't even hold hands when we walk down the street. I should have every right to hold my wife's hand. I can't take you out to a simple dinner without the threat of paparizzi's blinding us. Because of me we can't be normal!"

"I know that you aren't normal. That's why I married you in the first place silly."

"Don't change the subject Hinata. Tell me the truth."

"I admit that I get…frustrated…sometimes but it's nothing that I can't handle. Besides I always have him to keep me company." Hinata showed Sasuke a stuffed animal. He had given it to her the night of the wedding. He knew that he wasn't going to be able to see her all that often so he got her a temporary replacement. "Pretend it's me" he had said.

"This is so stupid." Hinata turned to face Sasuke, slowly tracing his jawline.

"It's only for a little while longer remember?"

"We said that 3 years ago. How much longer is it going to be? Whatever, I have to go back. I suggest that you watch the news tonight." Sasuke got out of bed and stared to get dressed. It sadden Hinata that the short time they had together ended with them having a fight.

"Sasuke…" He looked at her, saw her struggling to not let the tears fall.

"Let's not fight about it. Just promise that you will watch the news tonight okay?"

"Okay." Sasuke kissed Hinata once more.

"Love you." He gently whispered and then he was gone.

Hinata called Sakura and said that she didn't want to go in today. Sakura probably guessed her mood because she didn't press the matter any further. Hinata scooped som ice cream out of the container before changing her mind and taking the whole container with her instead. After setting up the recorder, Hinata down on the couch and waited. After some news about the economy, the segment about Sasuke finally came on. He was wearing a nice suit. Hinata had to admit that he looked hot. She saw numerous flashes of cameras and videocameras around him. Ino had the honor of doing a live interview on him. She had sent an apologetic text to Hinata a few minutes before the interview started. Hinata replied that she understood.

"So Sasuke, what are these pictures about?" Hinata looked on in horror as Ino showed pictures of Sasuke walking with her into her apartment and then him walking out the next morning.

"I am just entering an apartment that I own."

"Then who is that young lady? Resources have discovered that it is Hinata Hyuuga, daughter of the late Hiashi Hyuuga."

"Yes that's correct."

"She was going to inherit the company but was kicked out."

"No she gave the position to her cousin Neji. She wasn't kicked out."

"I see. And according to our investigators she owns a café."

"Yes it's a small café. Business is going quite well at that place."

"You surely aren't avoiding any questions. Anything else you care to share? Such as how you met her?"

"I met her when we were in high school a few years before I debuted."

"Were you guys dating?"

"Yes." The bluntness of Sasuke surprised Hinata. This wasn't suppose to be happening.

"Are you guys still dating?"

"No we are not. According to contracts I can no longer date."

"So is it safe to say that the Sasuke Uchiha is still single?" Hinata noted how Ino tried to phase the question so that it would make matters easier to handle. Sasuke turned to look directly at the cameras before answering.

"First I want to apologize to all my fans. I didn't mean to deceive them. Before I entered this business I had a life. I hope that they can understand that I still have a life, outside of all of this. Hinata Hyuuga is someone very dear to me, always has been and always will be." Sasuke paused. "I just wanted to apologize to her for all the things I had done to hurt her in the past. I promise things will be different from now on."

"We are very confused. You said that you weren't dating her anymore because your company contract says that you are not allowed to date.

"It's not the company contract that says I am not allowed to date."

"Not the company contract? Then what contract is it?" Hinata saw Ino shift uncomfortably in her seat. Where was Sasuke going with this?

"Yes." Sasuke took off his necklace and showed the press his ring. "I am talking about a marriage contract. Hinata and I have been married for 3 years now."

Ino was shocked.

Hinata dropped the ice cream that she was eating.

Sasuke gave his signature smirk.

The press went wild.

* * *

Thanks for reading. I know that this was sort of long one - shot. Please be kind and review.


End file.
